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DANIEL O’NEILL (1920 - 1974)
Figures in a Landscape
Oil on board, 30 x 76cm (11.75 x 30”)
Signed, inscribed with title verso
Exhibited: The Waddington Gallery Montreal (Gallery label verso)
Provenance: Irish Art Sale in these rooms December 1996, Cat. No.59 where purchased by current owner. (Detail featured on
front cover of catalogue.)
As one of Victor Waddington’s most successful young painters, Daniel O’Neill was awarded regular solo and group exhibitions,
as well as a ready outlet for his work. For twelve years, this patronage allowed him to continue to produce paintings without the
burden of having to seek promotion or critical response. However, when Waddington left Dublin for London in 1956, this was to
change.
For Waddington, the opening of his new Cork St Gallery in London presented new challenges. He had also become interested
in the work of the St. Ives painters, as well as in the international abstract movement and while he continued to deal in the
work of O’Neill, and Jack Yeats, Irish painting was no longer his chief focus. He did, however, continue his promotion of O’Neill,
albeit on a smaller scale, and organised two more solo exhibitions for him at the Dawson Gallery, Dublin during 1960 and 1963.
Subsequently, he also arranged for two shows at The Gallerie Waddington, in Montreal.
The invitation card to the Montreal exhibition suggests that the first of these shows was held during the late 1950s, as the
image on the invitation is typical of the work O’Neill was creating at this time. Interviewed by An Irishman’s Diary - during the
preview of his 1963 exhibition at the Dawson Gallery, O’Neill made mention of his recent show at the Montreal Gallery. This
reference suggests that it is probable that the second Montreal exhibition was held during 1961 or 1962.
Figures in a Landscape
was one of the paintings exhibited in Montreal which happily made its way back to Ireland, in the 1990s.
Maureen O’Neill recalled that when he was asked what he painted, O’Neill usually gave the cryptic response that, ‘he painted
landscapes with people and people in landscapes’.This particular work bears some comparison with an earlier work
Knockalla
Hills
, painted in 1951, which is in The Ulster Museum collection. Both works have a similar mountain range backdrop and are
alike in the treatment of the skeletal trees and in the depiction of the silvery fallen tree limbs and grasses.
The unusual format (for O’Neill) is well and cleverly exploited in the various compositional devices he has created. The horizon-
tal landscape is relieved by the vertical trees going out of the picture plane on either side, while the figures are re-emphasising
the linear in their positioning. The six children, shepherded by a young woman, gaze outwards, while the energetic treatment of
their dress contrasts with the solemnity of their facial expression.
The colour throughout is harmonious and muted giving unity and a timeless mood to the piece, while O’Neill’s masterly use of
impasto and glaze techniques impart interest to the various elements, inviting the viewer to re-interpret the meaning of the
scene. Daniel O’Neill had created a pictorial world of his own and it was commented by the critic from The Irish Times that it
was ‘as strange and exotic as any Xanadu, rich in colour and sensuous in quality’, while The Irish Independent critic remarked:
‘rich with humanity, he makes the unequivocal statement in paint; his colour glowing yet controlled’.
Anne-Marie Keaveney
€ 15,000 - 20,000